INSIDE STORY: Clues to Why Melissa Huckaby Murdered an 8-Year-Old Girl

People.com(June 2010)- The day 8-year-old Sandra Cantu disappeared from a Tracy, Calif., mobile-home park, Melissa Huckaby sent a text message to the child's mother.

"Tell the police that I had something stolen today around 4 p.m.," Huckaby texted to Maria Chavez on March 27, 2009. "I don't know if that makes a difference or not."

That stolen item turned out to be an Eddie Bauer suitcase that contained Cantu’s body, the victim of a brutal sexual assault and murder.

The case horrified the Central California community, but even after Huckaby pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, residents were at loss as to why the Sunday school teacher committed such a heinous crime against her own daughter's playmate.

Now, with thousands of pages of previously sealed documents released and the lifting of a gag order, authorities are offering a theory: The bizarre text message and Huckaby's subsequent strange behavior suggested she killed the child in an attempt to attract attention to herself.

A Theory for Motive
Such behavior has a name: Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, a form of child abuse, in which a person harms somebody else, often children, for attention. The prosecutor in the case noted that Huckaby's daughter may also have fallen victim: the child had a history of being sick and in need of hospital care way too often.

"There were 20 or so times that Melissa cut herself, set fires, or verbally or psychologically attacked someone else, such as a roommate," says Deputy District Attorney Thomas Tesla. "And there was something like that going on here (after the murder), where she wanted to be the center of attention."

The text message was just one clue. Also, the day after Sandra disappeared, Huckaby was hysterical and hyperventilating as she went to police to say she had found a note on lined notebook paper.

Newly Revealed Evidence
The misspelled message stated Sandra's body was locked in a stolen suitcase thrown in water at Bacchetti and Whitehall roads. "I wonder if she wanted to be the one who solved the case by finding the note," Tesla suggests.

Investigators thought it unusual that a woman who reported losing a suitcase "should be the one woman out of everyone in this complex who should happen to find a note that reports that the stolen suitcase was used to hide the child's body," FBI Special Agent Michael Conrad would testify in the grand jury, according to transcripts.

During an April 6 search of Huckaby's home after the suitcase was recovered, FBI agents found a notebook with "Cute but psycho. Things will even out" printed on the cover. On the pages they found indentations matching the letters from the note.

"It didn’t take an FBI expert to figure this out," Tesla says. "She has a distinctive way of writing certain letters. You can compare it to her known handwriting… and tell as a layperson that they’re written by the same person."

When confronted with the mounting evidence, court documents show, Huckaby offered a confession of sorts, saying that Cantu hid in the suitcase in Huckaby’s trailer as part of a game, but stayed inside too long and suffocated. Huckaby also offered a soft version of the events at her sentencing, saying Sandra "didn't suffer. I didn't sexually molest her."

But, Tesla contends, forensic evidence offers a grimmer version of the crime: Huckaby took Cantu to her grandfather’s nearby church, sexually molested her with a rolling pin, strangled her and stuffed her into the suitcase in a snug fetal position that Cantu couldn’t have squeezed into on her own. Huckaby then tossed the suitcase into an agricultural ditch that stunk so badly of manure that searchers couldn’t retrieve the suitcase until it eventually floated to the surface.

In the first few days of the investigation, detectives assumed the killer was a man. They trailed local sex offenders and investigated their alibis. Says Tesla: "We thought there was no way a woman would do these things."

Sandra Cantu Case: Hearing Again Delayed for Melissa Huckaby, Suspect in Murder, Rape of 8-Year-Old Sandra Cantu

STOCKTON — A hearing to suppress evidence in the case against the woman accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu has been postponed for the second time.

Melissa Huckaby's public defender asked for more time Monday to prepare for the hearing, which was tentatively set to begin April 12.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus agreed. Parties will return to court May 10 to set a new date for the evidence hearing. That hearing is expected to last about a week.

Huckaby, 29, appeared with her public defender Sam Behar in a Stockton courtroom in a red jail jumpsuit. Her long hair had been cut into a short, curly style, and she had gained several pounds since her last court appearance in December.

This is the second time Behar asked for additional time to prepare for the suppression hearing. The original hearing was set for Feb. 16. In January, Behar asked for more time because, according to court records, he had not reviewed all the evidence and wanted to get information about an internal investigation by Tracy Police about what a detective said while getting a statement from Huckaby. Her statement was then used to prepare search warrants.

Prosecutor Thomas Testa did not object to the delay since it will not affect Huckaby's Oct. 18 trial date. Lofthus encouraged both sides to prepare to start trial that day.

The Tracy woman is accused of killing Sandra, who was last seen alive on March 27, 2009. After a 10-day search, the girl's body was found in a black suitcase in a pond not far from the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park, where the second grader and Huckaby were neighbors.

Tracy police arrested Huckaby on April 10. A San Joaquin County grand jury indicted the mother and Sunday school teacher on murder with three enhancements — kidnapping, lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument — in connection with Sandra's death. A second count charges Huckaby with a sex crime with a child 10 years or younger. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if she is convicted.

Huckaby has also been indicted on two counts of furnishing a harmful substance and one count of child endangerment for two unrelated cases involving another Tracy girl and a Hayward man.

She has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Judge Sets Trial Date for Huckaby

STOCKTON - Melissa Huckaby, the Tracy woman accused of kidnapping, raping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, is set to face trial late next year.

San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Linda Lofthus set a trial date of Oct. 18 after a 30-minute hearing Friday at which the 28-year-old Huckaby was present.

The judge also set Feb. 16 as the day she will consider a defense motion to suppress evidence. She did not set a date to hear a separate defense request to dismiss a grand jury's indictment.

Lofthus has sealed pretrial motions and issued a gag order in the case, so details of prosecutors' case against Huckaby still are unknown to the public.

Prosecutors had been pushing to begin the trial quickly over worries that the memories of some young witnesses will fade. But San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa did not object Friday to the trial date.

Huckaby is charged with murdering Sandra, a playmate of her daughter's who was a neighbor in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park in Tracy. Sandra disappeared March 27.

Days later, farm workers found Sandra's body in a black suitcase that had been dumped in a rural drainage pond a couple of miles north of Tracy. Huckaby also is accused of drugging a 7-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

On Friday, attorneys hashed out plans for evidence sharing and other procedural issues but revealed few details. Testa said the defense motion to suppress evidence required him to subpoena authorities in Los Angeles. In an unrelated discussion, he mentioned he had handed over a disc of handwriting analysis to the defense.

San Francisco attorney Michael Burt, who is assisting Huckaby's lawyer, San Joaquin County Deputy Public Defender Sam Behar, requested instructions that were given to the grand jury that indicted Huckaby. Burt, a star death penalty defense attorney who led or assisted in the defenses of Lyle Menendez, Charles Ng, Richard Ramirez and Cary Stayner, said part of the defense's basis for asking that the indictment be tossed is that they believe the jurors were not instructed correctly, but he did not elaborate.

The October trial date could change if there are delays in the months before. That could happen if the defense successfully moves the case out of San Joaquin County.

Behar missed Friday's hearing because of illness.

Sunday School Teacher to Face Death in Child's Killing

(CNN) -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a former California Sunday school teacher accused of killing an 8-year-old girl earlier this year.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, was indicted last month in the death of Sandra Cantu, a playmate of Huckaby's daughter. Huckaby lived in the same mobile home park as Cantu and her family in Tracy, California.

Sandra's body was found April 6, stuffed into a suitcase and submerged in a pond at a dairy farm. She was last seen alive March 27 in the mobile home park.

Huckaby is charged with kidnapping and murdering Sandra, according to the indictment, along with lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14 and rape by instrument. She pleaded not guilty in June, but entered another not guilty plea on Thursday at a hearing, minutes of which were provided to CNN by a court spokeswoman.

Prosecutors said at the hearing Thursday they plan to seek the death penalty.

Huckaby is the granddaughter of Clifford Lane Lawless, pastor of Clover Road Baptist Church near the mobile home park, and she taught Sunday school at the church, police said.

The church was searched as part of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance and death.

Before her arrest, Huckaby acknowledged to a newspaper reporter that she owned the suitcase that contained Sandra's body, but said it had been stolen.

In addition to the charges in Sandra's death, Huckaby is charged with attempting to poison two people, including a 7-year-old girl. A complaint alleges she "did willfully and unlawfully mingle a harmful substance with food or drink" with the intent to harm the child.

The complaint identifies the child only as "Jane M. Doe." Huckaby is also charged with one count of child abuse endangerment regarding the girl, who the complaint says was in her "care and custody." The other alleged poisoning victim was identified as Daniel Plowman, but no other information was provided.

A gag order has been imposed on parties in the case. Superior Court Judge Linda L. Lofthus has also sealed documents in the case, including the autopsy and toxicology reports and documents relating to a defense motion to exhume Sandra's body.

Huckaby remains jailed without bail. A hearing was set for September 25.

Former Sunday School Teacher Indicted in Girl's Death

(CNN) -- A grand jury in northern California on Monday indicted a former Sunday school teacher on charges of kidnapping, murder and rape in the death of an 8-year-old girl.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, is accused of killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, who disappeared on March 27 in Tracy, California. Her body was found April 6 in a suitcase in an irrigation pond near the mobile home park where her family lived. Huckaby and her daughter, who played with Sandra, also lived in the mobile home park.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Henry Lee, who was in the courtroom in San Joaquin County on Monday as the indictment was read, told CNN:

"Melissa began weeping as the judge read the charges of murder and rape aloud. ... She was shackled and wore a red jail jumpsuit. Otherwise, she said nothing."

The grand jury heard two weeks of testimony.

In June, Huckaby pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The judge scheduled her next court appearance for September 10, giving her attorney time to review the indictment. No trial date has been set.

The rape accusations, involving special circumstances, are "grotesque to think of," Lee said.

Prosecutors will take about two more months to decide whether to seek the death penalty, because of the special circumstances.

Huckaby appeared in court with several fresh scratches on her forehead, according to Lee. She remains in the San Joaquin County Jail without bail, according to CNN affiliate KCRA.

"There were reports she tried to commit suicide in her jail cell. ... She has previously tried to commit suicide by means of swallowing razor blades," Lee added.

Sunday School Teacher Pleads not Guilty In Murder of 8-Year-Old Northern California girl

STOCKTON, Calif. -The Sunday school teacher accused of murdering an 8-year-old Northern California girl has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

The lawyer for 28-year-old Melissa Huckaby entered the plea on her behalf during a 10-minute hearing Friday.

Prosecutor Demands Plea in Child's Killing

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The woman accused of the kidnap, rape and murder of an 8-year-old California girl has yet to enter a plea in three court appearances.

So, the prosecutor wants the judge to enter a plea for her Friday if she refuses to answer to charges again.

Melissa Huckaby, 28, is charged in connection with the death of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu.

Sandra disappeared March 27 and her body was found April 6, stuffed in a suitcase submerged in an irrigation pond near the Northern California town of Tracy.

If the Sunday-school teacher does not enter a plea, Judge Linda Lufthus must enter a not-guilty plea for her so the case can move along, San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa told Lufthus in court papers filed Monday. He also wants the judge to set a preliminary hearing date.

At Huckaby's last court appearance on May 22, public defender Sam Behar told the judge he needed more time to review 1,000 pages of evidence he had just received from new charges filed against Huckaby a day before.

The charges of kidnapping, rape and murder include three special circumstance accusations that make Huckaby eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

In addition, she is charged with child endangerment and furnishing a harmful substance in the drugging of another 7-year-old girl and a man, both of whom survived, in the months before Sandra was murdered.

Teens Charged As Adults in Locker Room Sexual Assault Case

(CNN) -- Four teenage boys in Tampa, Florida, were charged as adults Wednesday on allegations of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

Charged with four counts each of sexual battery were Randall John Moye, 14; Raymond A. Price-Murray, 14; Lee Louis Myers, 14; and Diamante J. Roberts, 15. CNN is naming the defendants because they were charged as adults.

Hillsborough County prosecutors allege the four boys raped the 13-year-old victim multiple times over two months with a broomstick and hockey stick.

At a bond and arraignment hearing, the defendants appeared before Hillsborough County Judge Wayne Timmerman to hear the counts against them read in court.

Prosecutor Kimberly Hindman described to the court how two defendants held down the victim while the other two defendants violently sodomized him with the sticks. "The victim screamed and cried, telling them to stop," Hindman said.

The prosecutor said the victim's screams could be heard outside the boys' locker room at Walker Middle School, in southern Tampa, where the alleged assaults took place.

Multiple people witnessed the attacks, but no one reported the incidents, including the victim, Hindman said.

The school began an investigation after a fight that began on the football field and continued until a coach broke it up in the locker room, said the prosecutor. During the fight, the victim said, "I'm tired of them getting on me," Hindman said.

When school officials questioned the defendants, all four admitted in a written statement that they had sexually assaulted the victim.

The defendants "all implicated themselves in a sexual-battery incident," Hindman said.

The victim did not acknowledge the attacks until questioned. School officials contacted authorities, who initially charged the four as minors with sexual assault and false imprisonment.

Several students witnessed the incidents over the two months, said the prosecutor, who added that she could not understand why no one reported the attacks.

The victim made a statement in court, telling the judge how his father was angry and his mother couldn't stop crying when they heard about the attacks.

Defense attorneys told the judge their clients were good students and had never been in trouble before. Attorney Tim Taylor, representing Randall Moye, said his client's family is among the finest in the community.

Taylor presented six character witnesses, including his client's mother, Jeanne Myers, who said her son wants to attend college. The prosecutor asked her about her son's written statement about the attacks. Myers said her son described clowning around in the locker room with a hockey stick. She added that he told her about holding down the victim for a few seconds.

The victim finished the academic year at home instead of returning to school, authorities said.

The judge set bond for each defendant at $15,000, with ankle monitors for all but one, who has left the area. The four boys were taken into custody in court and booked into the adult jail. The judge warned the four to have no contact with one another, the victim or any witnesses in the case.

The defendants could spend up to 120 years in prison if convicted on all four counts.